Coming Home
by coloradoswimm
Summary: Seth returns after being gone for the summer. Summer reacts.
1. Chapter 1

Summer slept. It seemed that lately all that she ever did was sleep. She slept in the daytime, in the nighttime, and in the in between time when it was to light to count as night, but too dark to count as day. She knew that her dad was worried about her, and she knew that Marissa was too, but that didn't matter. All that mattered was that when she slept she couldn't feel anything. She couldn't remember anything, she couldn't miss anyone. She couldn't hurt anymore.

Then the dreams came. She dreamt about Seth mostly. About him leaving, about him coming back, (which probably was never going to happen), about Seth. After the dreams sleep wasn't her friend anymore. After the dreams she had to start dealing.

Summer hadn't ever been very good at the whole 'dealing' thing. Her therapist said she had rage problems, but Summer just looked at it as 'over-reacting to her emotions'. So dealing really consisted of her lashing out at everyone she cared about. Well, everyone she cared about who hadn't left her yet.

The day he came back started out just like any other day. Summer woke up to her alarm, went to school, and went through the motions, talking to as little people as humanly possible. It was when she got home that it happened. She was carrying her books into the kitchen when she heard a noise at the front door. She dropped her books and grabbed the nearest defense object that she could find: a kitchen knife. Walking into the foyer, she dropped the knife. Seth Cohen was halfway in the house, his top half sticking through the partway open window, his torso still stuck outside.

"Cohen?" She said in utter disbelief. The anger hadn't set in yet, but she was sure that it would come sooner or later. Cohen had better hope it came later.

"Hey, Summer," Seth said raising the one arm that wasn't jammed in the window in greeting, "A little help here?"

Not really thinking about what she was doing, Summer went to the window and opened it all the way. Seth made an attempt to right himself gracefully, but ended up falling from his humorous position in the window to being sprawled out on the floor. The transition from these two positions involved a whole lot of arm waving and leg kicking on Seth's part, something that, under other circumstances, would have made Summer laugh. As it was, her face stayed emotionless.

"I was going for stealth…" Seth mumbled, and then trailed of, looking at Summer.

Summer didn't say anything back. She simply walked past him and out the front door, leaving Seth standing alone in her empty Foyer.


	2. Chapter 2

Seth was confused. Where was the yelling? Where was the screaming? Where was the rage? He stared at the door. He hadn't prepared for this. He wasn't expecting to walk away from this without at least a black eye. Now, watching as Summer got into her car and drove away, he found that this reaction was almost worse than the rage.

It was only later that he looked back and realized the mistake that he made at this very moment…

He should have gone after her.

Summer drove not really knowing or caring where she ended up. She didn't permit herself to think, only concentrated on driving. Somehow, sooner or later she ended up in front of the Cohen's house. Without understanding what she was doing, she walked up to the door. It was locked. '_Maybe,_' She thought, _'I should take a tip from Cohen.' _She looked up at the second story window that she knew led to Seth's room. Going around back, she found a latter. She leaned it against the front of the house, the top resting next to his window ledge, and began to climb. Once she reached his window, she grabbed onto the ledge. A careless kick on her part, and the latter clattered to the driveway below, leaving her dangling awkwardly from the ledge.

_'Crap,'_ She thought, '_Of course this would happen'._

As she was trying to figure out exactly how to get down, she heard a noise from below her. She looked down and saw Ryan Atwood, Seth's adopted brother standing about a foot under her dangling feet.

"Um, Summer…" He said. She could tell he was suppressing a laugh.

"What? She snapped.

"Need some help?" She looked around her, desperately trying to find a way to get down on her own to maintain a shred of dignity, but finding none she sighed in surrender.

"Yeah, I do," She said reluctantly.

"Um, okay. Here, um, can you just, er…. Well let go of the ledge."

"Excuse me?"

"Let go, I'll catch you."

'_So much for dignity,' _Summer thought, but she let go. Ryan caught her as gracefully as he could, which ended up being not so graceful, and set her down on solid ground. She dusted herself of and smiled, embarrassed, up at him.

"What do you say we don't talk about this ever again?" She asked him hopefully.

"Talk about what?" He said smiling at her. She laughed.

"But" He said, "If I can ask, what were you doing?"

Summer didn't know how to answer that, so all she said was,

"Seth came back."

Summer watched his face carefully. At first when she said it her looked surprised. Then the anger set in.

"Well," He said darkly, "This should be interesting."

He got that right.


	3. Chapter 3

Ryan Atwood knew Summer was hurt. He was hurt too, as much as he hated to admit it. Kirsten and Sandy had sure been hurt. Even Marissa hadn't completely understood why Seth left last summer. This was partly why Ryan had a hard time forgiving Seth. He had caused too much pain to the people Ryan cared about; to the people Seth supposedly cared about. It just wasn't forgivable.

Ryan flipped on the TV. A knock on the door to the pool house startled him. He looked up to see Seth's string bean shape standing outside, looking slightly nervous. Ryan sighed, got up, and opened the door to let Seth in.

"What do you want?" Ryan said, he didn't have much patience; not today.

"Um," Seth started, "no 'hey bro, what's up?'" Ryan glared at him.

"Okay then." Seth looked around the pool house.

"You know, I've kind of missed this place." He sat on the bed, bouncing a bit to get the feel for it. Ryan rolled his eyes and took a seat in the chair across from Seth, keeping one eye on him the whole time.

"Man, where have you been?" Seth looked up at him quickly, and then his eyes darted downward again,

"Doesn't matter. Ryan, I've done some things I'm not proud of, but I realized that running from my problems isn't really the answer."

Ryan thought for a second.

"Seth, you left almost a year ago. Didn't say goodbye to your parents, to me, to Marissa, or even to Summer. We have a right to know where you went." Seth, who had glanced at the door when Summer's name was mentioned, took a deep breath.

""How was she?" He asked. "I mean when I left."

Ryan didn't have to ask who he meant.

"Not too good," he said, "She had some pretty bad days. Slept a lot. Didn't go out much. Marissa and I tried to get her to go out a few times, but it seemed like she wasn't there anymore; like for a while the real Summer left and a substitute Summer took her place."

Ryan had to admit, Seth had a look of genuine pain on his face after hearing these words. He softened a bit.

"She doesn't hate you man. She couldn't ever really hate you I don't think."

Seth nodded, but his mind was far away.

"D'ya know where she went?" He asked, hoping. Ryan shook his head. Seth got up slowly. As he was leaving, he looked back at Ryan.

"I hope you forgive me," he said, and then, almost as if he were just talking to himself, "I hope she can too."

Summer was pissed. Not just a little ticked off, she was full out pissed. Seth Cohen was a- Well she couldn't think of a strong enough word to depict exactly what he was. She was driving on the 101 and it was about 1 o'clock in the morning. Any guy who could have her out of her bed at this time of night wasn't worth the time of day.

Summer started to cry. Why was everything so hard? She swore, sometimes everything in life seemed like a soap opera.

It was getting hard to see the road. Everything was blurring. A horn beeped as if far away, and then…

Spinning, spinning spinning.

Blackness.


	4. Chapter 4

Summer regained consciousness to the sound of glass breaking. She tried to tip her head to see what was going on, but found that she was stuck. Everything was a mess. Looking down she saw a lot of red, but she couldn't quite figure out where the red was coming from. She was stuck in what looked like a heap of burning metal. She could have sworn she saw Seth's face before everything went back to black.

Seth saw Summer's car in a heap on the side of the road. At first he didn't think that it could be her, but upon checking the faded license, he knew that it was,

_Oh. God please. _He thought as he broke the window in the driver's side. She was a mess. There was glass and metal and blood everywhere. Getting her out wasn't going to be easy.

The next time Summer woke all that she could hear was a loud beeping sound Everything was a blur. There were people in white jackets everywhere. They were yelling to each other as they were speeding her down a blinding hallway. She thought she heard Seth's voice coming from next to her, but she couldn't see him. She wanted more than anything to be any where but here. What was going on? Where were they taking her? She tried to move, but her legs wouldn't do what she told them to. The people in the white coats brought her into a room filled with machinery.

Summer didn't even know Seth was holding her hand, until he let it go.

They wouldn't let Seth go with her. What was wrong with them? They told him to wait outside; that they would keep him updated. He didn't think he could just sit outside and wait. What if Summer -? He didn't let himself finish the thought.

The elevator across from the waiting area opened and Ryan and Marissa came out. Seth had forgotten he had called them.

Marissa yelled something, but he didn't understand. She said it again, then again, each time becoming more and more panicked. Seth shook his head at her, trying to comprehend. This seemed to upset her more. Tears were pouring down her face as she hit him on the shoulder shouting something. Finally Seth understood.

"Where is she? SETH! WHERE IS SHE?" She was screaming now, and people were turning to look. Ryan grabbed her arm as she went to hit Seth again, and she began to sob into his shoulder.

They took her away, I don't know." Seth whispered. Ryan nodded at him, patted him on the shoulder, then walked Marissa over to a chair, where he sat her down. After she had calmed down, he came back over to Seth.

'What happened?" Seth shook his head yet again,

"I don't know, I just found her car…" his voice came out sounding hoarse and choked.

"Well, do you know anything yet? Is she going to be okay? What did the doctors say?" Ryan rained questions on him. Seth told him he didn't know the answers. Ryan seemed to understand that he didn't want to talk, and he went back to Marissa.

Seth walked away. He couldn't be near this. He couldn't keep watching Marissa as Ryan tried to quell her bursts of hysteria, He couldn't keep seeing people fall to the ground as the surgeon came out and told them their loved one had died.

That wasn't going to happen to him, they weren't going to tell him that Summer had died; that his life was over.


	5. Chapter 5

Seth knew it was his fault. That was the worst part, that it was so obviously and incontrovertibly _his fault. _He should have never left for the summer. It was just that everything had seemed to be all set. He had met the girl of his dreams, he was going to school on the east coast, he and Summer would eventually get married and then his life would most likely turn out just like his parents. Happy, yet predictable. Seth hadn't known if he was ready for that kind of predictability. He hadn't known if was ready to commit himself to that life yet.

Now that Seth thought about it he knew it was a mistake, but at the time he had thought that it would be a good idea to leave town for a bit. He had hoped that this would help him sort out where he really wanted his future to be. He had left town to make his life easier, but all it had done was ruin everything. Seth could see it now. He could see what he wanted, and everything that he wanted was hanging in the balance because of his stupid mistakes.

A man in white scrubs came out of the doors which, hours earlier, Seth had watched his future be wheeled into.

"Seth Cohen?" The man spoke and Seth prayed that his next words would be good news.

"That's me." Seth braced himself. It seemed to take years for the man to open his mouth and say the words Seth had been waiting so long to hear…

"She's going to be okay." Seth exhaled. HE couldn't help the huge grin that spread across his face. Behind him, Marissa burst into a fresh batch of tears, only these were tears of relief.

"Can I see her?" He asked.

"Yes," the man said. He led Seth, Marissa and Ryan through the doors and down a long hallway where there was a single room.

"She's in there. I'll give you your privacy." The man left, and Seth pushed the doors open. Summer was attached to what seemed like hundreds of tubes and machined.

_Even like this she still looks beautiful_. Seth thought.

Marissa ran to her bed.

"Sum! I was so worried!" Summer smiled.

"I'm okay," she said. Marissa backed up. Ryan smiled at Summer.

"Hey Roberts, glad to see you up and well." Summer laughed,

'Thanks, Atwood," She said. Ryan and Marissa backed up and Seth went to Summer's bed.

"Summer," He didn't even know where to begin, "I am so, so sorry. I love you so much and I don't ever want to be without you. This summer I-"

"Cohen. It's okay. I forgive you." Seth felt his heart warm at her next words…

" I love you too."


End file.
